A request submitted two years ago to slow speeding drivers in an
Encinitas neighborhood just east of Flora Vista Elementary School
got a green light to proceed Wednesday.

Encinitas City Council members told about 60 people at
Wednesday's meeting that there was no way to say no at this point,
and then unanimously voted to seek engineering cost estimates for
what's anticipated to be a $200,000 to $350,000 project.

"You've proven through our process that you qualify," Councilman
Jerome Stocks told the residents, as he described the extensive
city review that their "traffic-calming" proposal received.

The city conducted roadway studies, held a workshop session with
residents and then mailed ballots to the 170 property owners in the
area, which is north and east of the El Camino Real and Encinitas
Boulevard intersection in the Village Park community. Seventy
percent of those surveyed wanted the changes, city associate
traffic engineer Nestor Mangohig said Wednesday.

Plans call for the installation of several traffic-calming
measures ---- speed-bump-like devices and decorative roadway
medians as well as 'bulb-outs' or rounding of the corners at
intersections. Much of the work will focus on Gardendale Road,
which has attracted speeders because it is so wide, residents
said.

During Wednesday's meeting, the council heard from a dozen
speakers and most of them urged the city to get the job done soon.
One father created a map of his neighborhood, labeling what he said
were the two scariest intersections with a shark fin and
rattlesnake. Others described how fast-moving vehicles had killed
family pets and said a child could be next.

John Schmid, a Gardendale Road resident who bought his home
three years ago, said he and his wife debated at length whether to
purchase the property because of their concerns about speeding
drivers.

"We did buy the house, and now we worry too much," he said, as
he described how they panic every time they can't immediately
locate their 1-year-old daughter.

While most people in the audience appeared to support the
proposal, two longtime neighborhood residents said the
traffic-calming measures were excessive and unneeded.

Hummock Lane resident Trish Collins said she has lived in the
area for almost 30 years and hasn't seen evidence that traffic is
any worse now than it was three decades ago.

"It appears to me that the traffic-calming proposes a solution
for a problem that does not exist," she said, noting that the city
has no record of any injury accident along Gardendale Drive.

Village Center Drive resident Pat Lococo said she has lived in
the area for two decades and "I have never, ever felt
endangered."